Four short links: 25 November 2009

http-parser — This is a parser for HTTP messages written in C. It parses both requests and responses. The parser is designed to be used in performance HTTP applications. It does not make any allocations, it does not buffer data, and it can be interrupted at anytime. It only requires about 128 bytes of data per message stream (in a web server that is per connection). Extremely sexy piece of coding. (via sungo on Twitter)

Wikileaks to Release 9/11 Pager Intercepts — they’re trickling the half-million messages out in simulated real time. The archive is a completely objective record of the defining moment of our time. We hope that its revelation will lead to a more nuanced understanding of the event and its tragic consequences. (via cshirky on Twitter)

Promoting Open Source Science — interesting interview with an open science practitioner, but also notable for what it is: he was interviewed and released the text of the interview himself because his responses had been abridged in the printed version. (via suze on Twitter)

Copyright, Findability, and Other Ideas from NDF (Julie Starr) — a newspaper industry guru attended the National Digital Forum where Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums talk about their digital issues, where she discovered that newspapers and GLAMs have a lot in common. We can build beautiful, rich websites till the cows come home but they’re no good to anyone if people can’t easily find all that lovely content lurking beneath the homepage. That’s as true for news websites as it is for cultural archives and exhibitions, and it’s a topic that arose often in conversation at the NDF conference. I’ve been cooling on destination websites for a while. You need to have a destination website, of course, but you need even more to have your content out where your audience is so they can trip over it often and usefully.

Findability is still miserable on the web. Part of the problem is that there is no 50,000 ft view, drill down and known way points to find information. I’m still waiting for the ideas in the book – “Ambient Findability” by Peter Morville to get serious traction.

http://nerd.cx William

I am happy to take your assessment of http-parser as an “Extremely sexy piece of coding.” I would love an explanation of what this would be used for and how it is sexy though. I don’t do much parsing of HTTP – I use web servers (mostly apache2, some lighttpd) for that, and I only have a rudimentary understanding of what those servers do. I know how to configure a server, but that is about it – my understanding generally stops at the web application/RDBMS/interface level, and this seems to operate at a lower level than that.

http://mikefigueroa.com/blog/ Mike Figueroa

Re 9/11: Great project – thanks for posting, however A defining moment it may certainly be, The defining moment is likely presumptuous.

http://killtownsecretarchive.blogspot.com/ KSA crew

You can go to the bank on the fact that the end is very nigh for 911 liars, stalkers, slanderers.

As for those who say that it’s not appropriate to release personal messages that were texted on 911…. People deserve the truth… What is not right [much less appropriate] is the continual lies and slander that has gone on for years.

Karma can be a b!tch. Justice is coming and those who deserve their “just desserts” will be finally getting them.

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